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The helpless Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh since late August last year to escape a brutal military campaign in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are now facing another threat – human trafficking.

Life in the cramped camps is tough. Many of the Rohingyas are trying to escape the camps to build a better future for themselves and their families. Human traffickers are taking advantage of this situation.

Around 40 trafficking cases have been reported in the refugee camps since the latest influx started, according to an unofficial source. The information could not be verified independently but given the sheer number of the refugees – more than a million – the number of cases seems credible.

Back in their homeland in Myanmar, the Rohingyas are denied citizenship and basic rights by the government. Members of the mainly-Muslim ethnic community often venture out of their country in desperation and end up falling prey to trafficking.

Media reports indicate that many Rohingyas are now stranded in India and Nepal after moving there illegally from Bangladesh. Their exact numbers could not be ascertained.

Rohingya refugees in India

The Dhaka Tribune met an eight-year-old Rohingya girl, who identified herself as Nuri, at an Indian safe home in southern Kolkata. Her family fled from Myanmar in mid-2017.

Nuri has been living with other Bangladeshi trafficking victims rescued by the Indian police for about a year now. She was found in Kolkata’s Habra Bazar with two other Bangladeshi girls from Cox’s Bazar.

She reluctantly gave her identity. Nuri said she had come to India from Bangladesh with her parents and two sisters. “Police sent me here, and put my sisters and parents in jail,” she said.

When asked who had helped them cross the border, another girl Koli, who accompanied Nuri’s family, said a broker did. “But we were later caught by the police,” she said.

Nuri said her family stayed at a rented house in Patiya for a month after fleeing Myanmar. After her two other sisters, who were already in Hyderabad, told them to come over, one of her brothers-in-law contacted the middle-man.

Koli, 14, said she and her sister wanted to go to their aunt’s house in Hyderabad. A broker took TK10,000 from the two sisters and TK40,000 from the Rohingya family.

“Nuri is from Burma. Her family was with us. The seven of us had started from Cox’s Bazar on the same day last year and were caught by Indian police at Habra Bazar the next day,” Koli said.

An estimated 40,000 Rohingyas are believed to living in India, according to Kiren Rijiju, state minister for home. They include 14,000 Rohingyas registered as refugees with UNHCR, media reports say.
 

Rohingya refugees in Nepal

Nepali travel agent Govind Shahi said Rohingyas were coming there from Bangladesh. “It is not difficult to cross the border … Rohingyas are coming here via Bangladesh and India,” he said.

A report by the Diplomat on December 5, 2017, claimed that some Rohingya were moving to the Himalayan country.

It said that approximately 300 Rohingyas were living in hastily-built shelters in Kathmandu, some in Kapan while about 600 are spread across Nepal. Their exact number was impossible to determine.

“Worryingly, of the 147 Rohingya registered with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, all arrived before August 25, the start date of the Tatmadaw’s most recent brutal military actions. This means none of the most recent arrivals has been registered as the refugees they clearly are,” the report said.
 

Risk of trafficking in the camps

Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies have prioritized preventing the risk of the Rohingya refugees being trafficked from the camps. All vehicles and exit points are under heavy security check. But the risk still remains high, experts say.

“It actually goes back several years. The grand crisis is just part of a longer story,” human trafficking expert Siddharth Kara told this Dhaka Tribune correspondent in Los Angeles. “Many of them (Rohingyas) have been trafficked to Thailand for prostitution.”

He said the traffickers took advantage of the recent exodus and trafficked girls to India or other parts of Bangladesh. “It is a horrible scenario,” he said, adding: “I do not have that much faith in the repatriation process.”

Assistant Director for Mediation in BLAST Taposhi Rabaya said that at the beginning of the influx, people took away many children from the camps.

“These Rohingya children and women are at high risk of being trafficked. People are trafficking children for domestic work. They just hold the hand of a child and take him or her with them,” she said.

“No one knows what happens at the camps after sunset as outsiders (NGOs and aid workers) are not allowed to stay. Anything can happen. In fact, I did not feel that the security [in the camps] is tight enough even during the day,” she added.

Women’s rights activist Salma Ali said that many Rohingya women and children had already been trafficked. At the beginning of the influx, no one monitored the movement of the refugees.

“I have seen women getting on motorbikes from near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and nobody knew where they were going. These women and children are in need. They are refugees. They are not sure whether they would be able to go back to their own houses. Living in this kind of uncertainty makes them more vulnerable to crimes or trafficking,” she added.
 

What are the refugee camps doing to stop trafficking?

Various organizations have taken steps to raise awareness about trafficking among the refugees. The Women Friendly Space by UNFPA has two weekly sessions on trafficking.

UNFPA Case Worker Asmaul Hosna told the Dhaka Tribune that they talk about trafficking – what is trafficking? How might they aend up being a victim of trafficking? How will they understand that someone is trying to traffic them?

“Women and children are at high risk. Traffickers may entice them with offers of jobs or a better life,” he said.

At times, they are swayed by such offers and flee with the swindlers, ending up as trafficking victims, he added.

Senior Manager of Child Protection, Save the Children, Mostofa Feroz said such instances were common. Save the Children is running a Child Club in the camps to raise awareness about such issues.

“We tell them (the children) not to trust people offering gifts or jobs. In such cases, we have advised the children to come to our offices. Child Peer Leaders from our Child Club are spreading awareness messages among the Rohingyas about trafficking,” he added.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune
 

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Shoaib Hossain Jewel is a Bangladeshi citizen, aged about 25 years, a Hafiz-e-Quran, and a teacher at a madrasa in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area.

Shoaib’s life took an eventful turn when he met Rafiza, an 18-year-old Rohingya woman, who with her family fled to Bangladesh from the Rakhine State of Myanmar, escaping what the UN called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar.

He fell in love with Rafiza when he met her at his teacher’s home in Singair where she and her family took refuge in order to escape starvation and disease at the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Shoaib decided to marry Rafiza but his dream of marrying her was shattered on the very day he started preparations for the wedding as the district administration deported Rafiza’s family to Kutupalong refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar on September 14.

Shoaib was informed by the local police that since 2014 the government had banned marriage between Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals.

Then, in quest of finding his beloved, he travelled all the way to Kutupalong Refugee Camp at Cox’s Bazar and traced Rafiza amongst the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift shelters. Upon finding Rafiza, Shoaib married her at a mosque located inside the camp, with the consent of Rafiza’s parents. The marriage was conducted by the imam of the mosque in accordance with Islamic norms and principles.
 

The concern that Rohingyas are ‘allegedly’ using marriage as a tool to gain citizenship in Bangladesh can be addressed in other ways including incorporating policies or laws to prevent ‘sham marriages’ that were entered into for the purpose of attaining Bangladeshi citizenship by Rohingyas

However, they could not register their marriage and Shoaib returned to his native village in Singair, in Manikganj with his newly-wedded wife Rafiza. Upon their return, the police at the Singair Upazila were alerted and the couple ran away and hid in fear of being arrested.

In July of 2014, the government had issued a public order which banned marriage between Bangladeshi citizens and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Accordingly, the government had also issued an order prohibiting marriage registrars or kazis from registering any such marriages.

This year the government issued another gazette notification, directing marriage registrars to ensure that both brides and grooms are of Bangladeshi nationality before registering any marriage in “special areas,” namely Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati and Chittagong, and threatened with punitive actions if the kazis were found negligent in this regard.

The government claims that the ban/prohibition is intended to prevent Rohingya refugees from using their marriage certificates to obtain Bangladeshi citizenship and become permanent residents.

A writ petition was filed on December 10 challenging the circular passed by the government on October 25.

The petitioner is the father of Shoaib Hossain Jewel.

The High Court has heard the writ on December 14, and adjourned the matter until January 7, 2018.

There is generally no bar against Bangladeshi citizens marrying people from other nationalities.
 

Human rights violation

Dhaka University International Relations Professor CR Abrar told the Dhaka Tribune that this directive and other similar administrative orders are in conflict with several constitutional provisions and laws of the land.

Prof Abrar said: “The stipulation of securing a prior approval that is solely based on ethnic, racial or nationality consideration is a clear breach of international human rights standards. It also appears to be against the spirit of the Constitution of Bangladesh which guarantees human right and freedom of human person under Article 11.”

“In Bangladesh, Muslim marriages are regulated under the Muslim Personal Law (Sharia). From that perspective there is no bar for a Rohingya Muslim to marry an undocumented Myanmar national or Bangladeshi citizen who is also a Muslim and marriage under the Muslim Law (Sharia) is a civil contract requiring no ceremony or special formality,” he added.

Barrister ABM Hamidul Mishbah told the Dhaka Tribune that prohibiting or preventing Shoaib from registering his marriage with Rafiza, who is also a Muslim, on the basis of Rafiza’s Rohingya status, constitutes discrimination against Shoaib, on the ground of race and nationality.

“The concern that Rohingyas are ‘allegedly’ using marriage as a tool to gain citizenship in Bangladesh can be addressed in other ways including incorporating policies or laws to prevent ‘sham marriages’ that were entered into for the purpose of attaining Bangladeshi citizenship by Rohingyas, and on the ground that the parties never intended to be husband and wife, among others,” said Barrister Hamidul.
 

‘If the government of Bangladesh allows marriage registration, repatriation will be impossible’

Former law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed thinks the decision of the marriage restriction is a reasonable order by the government.

“If marriage registration happens, then they [Rohingya] might claim citizenship and that might create many problems,” said the former minister.

“If the government of Bangladesh allows marriage registration, repatriation will be impossible and the Rohingya people will not be able to return to their home.

However, Barrister ABM Hamidul Mishbah thinks this ban on marriage seemed to have failed to achieve its objective anyway, and has rather curbed basic human rights of Bangladeshi citizens who would wish to get married to a Rohingya citizen for a genuine cause.
Barrister Mishbah said: “This would also create room for law enforcement agencies to arbitrarily use their power against any Bangladeshi citizen like Shoaib, and would therefore constitute another set of illegality and corrupt practices.”

“It is not difficult to obtain fake birth certificates which can be used to apply for NID cards in Bangladesh. We have already seen in various newspapers that Rohingyas have applied for passports using fake documents and then got detected,” Barrister Mishbah added.
He further suggested that government could rather maneuver its own immigration rules to prohibit the Rohingyas access to various government facilities.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune

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In the Rohingya camps of Bangladesh, there are very few teenage girls. Over 429,000 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a military crackdown began there in August. Unicef says 60% of the recent influx is aged below 18.

However, as this correspondent noticed, older teenage girls were very few. Most girls who had made it here were younger, under 10 or 12, or older women with children.

The testimony of some survivors may provide some clue as to what may have happened to the girls.

“They killed my son, cut him into pieces in front me and gang-raped my younger daughter. Then they threw me out of my house and burnt her alive,” said Rahima Begum, a refugee sheltered in Nayapara, south of Cox’s Bazar.

She spoke with a stony countenance. Hers was a large family, and nine members had managed to flee from their home in Hajipara in the Maungdaw district of Rakhine.

“They entered my house where I was talking to my daughter Sabekunnahar and my son Rahmatullah, my two youngest children,” Rahima said, describing the attack on their home by Myanmar soldiers and Rakhine men 20 days ago.

The soldiers and the Rakhine men started setting fire to the other houses around the yard.

“They kicked my son Rahmatullah out of the house. One of my sons managed to flee with my sick husband, elder son managed to flee with his wife, son and one of his twin daughters, but the other twin was burnt alive. They shot dead my other son Hamid,” said Rahima.

“I begged to them to spare my 18-year-old daughter. Two of them held my daughter, others beat me. I was crying in pain and watching my daughter get gang-raped,” Rahima said.

“They stripped her naked, beat her and raped her. There were six of them and when one of them would rape my daughter, the others would cheer him on.”

Rahima’s voice became strained, but it seemed that her tears had run out.

Taking a deep breath, she said: “They threw me out of my house and burnt my daughter alive in front of me.

“My daughter was so beautiful. I could not save her from them, they burned her in flames. I did not hear her screaming, maybe she had accepted that she was going to die,” said Rahima.

United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten said this week she was “gravely concerned” about security operations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Survivors have described sexual violence being used as a “calculated tool of terror to force targeted populations to flee”, she said.

The Tulatoli village, immediately east of Bangladesh’s border, was one of the worst victims of large-scale massacres in the military operation against Rohingya villages.

Nurul Hakim was among about 20 or so fortunate enough to have survived the massacre. He told this correspondent that the soldiers had picked out all the beautiful teenagers and killed them.

“They picked up beautiful girls from our village between 12 and 20 years old, then they were tortured and raped by the Army and the Rakhine,” he said.

“Those girls were killed and then they locked them in a house and set fire to it,” he said.

This correspondent met a 16-year-old girl in a health camp for refugees in Kutupalong. She said she was from Buthidung. Asked if she was raped, the girl at first denied vehemently. Then she began to cry.

“I have been told that if anyone knows that I was gang-raped, no one will marry me and my life will be destroyed. What should I do? This is not my fault and I have not done anything wrong,” she said between gasps.

Soldiers picked her out, along with other girls and they were forced to strip at gunpoint.

The victim told the Dhaka Tribune: “When I was trying to flee with other women of my village, they found us and picked out around 20 girls. They told us to get naked in front of everyone at gunpoint and we did.

“Then they told us to bend down and they raped one after another. They raped us in front of all the villagers. Then they started shooting. I managed to flee and ran to save my life,” she said.

At least two to three people raped each of the girls in the line, she said.

She walked for 12 days to reach Bangladesh without any food.

Nur Ayesha, who is six months pregnant, witnessed her elder sister getting raped and killed. She is from Maungdaw.

“A group of Rakhine men came to our house in the afternoon. We were sitting together. They asked for water. When my sister got up to bring water they took her one-year-old son and threw him into the pond,” she said.

“Then they told her to get naked in front of everyone and to go inside the house. Seven of them went inside the house and raped her brutally. But they did not kill her as it was getting dark, so she survived.”

Nur Ayesha’s cousin, who is 12 years old, was also gang-raped and is under treatment in Kutupalong.

Mobile medical teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have so far treated 23 rape victims, according to Arunn Jegan, the project coordinator for MSF emergency response.

The low number of victims taking treatment may not be any indication of how many were actually raped.  Officials from a clinic run by the UNHCR at the Leda refugee camp, told the AFP that there were rape victims among the refugees who came in October last year who would come forward months later.

Many women have yet to admit to being raped, they believe.

A 12-year-old girl was found waiting in line at a meal kitchen for the refugees in Kutupalong. The girl had a raw wound around her neck.

She said she was caught by Rakhine men in Pansi, Buthidaung.

It seemed that the child does not understand what rape is. She said they hurt her.

“They caught me while fleeing. Their camp was just next door from our village. They hurt me and tied a rope around my neck. They held one end of the rope and spun me around just like a fan. After that I cannot remember anything.”

The girl had thought she died. When she opened her eyes she started running towards Bangladesh. After eight days of running, all alone and hungry, she swam across the Naf River to get to Bangladesh.

This article was first published in Dhaka Tribune

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